Figure of 8 – Strategy

Strategy

Organisations need a clear vision that the sponsor, stakeholders and project team have created together and agreed upon.

The Strategy is the pivot in the process, aligning to the market, with clear product specifications; while also segmenting into deliverable targets.

The mechanism to control this is the portfolio selection process that selects segments for scoped projects.

The Board will want to:

feed the corporate business plan into the forecast Profit and Loss account, that will define the vision and the goals for each domain.

understand demand, including what finance / resource is available (as this is nearly always the limiting factor, but must be managed anyway) and BAU (Service).

revise the Business demand within its financial boundaries to create a credible Strategy, with associated resource in terms of capacity and capability.

finalise net benefits by product, domain, year…, which creates a concrete business plan, that allows the portfolio or executive board to prioritise ideas and select the right viable programmes and projects

Sometimes business cases are ignored, grow out of date, or simply missed from the portfolio, as you rush from strategy to delivery.

APPROACH

Two scenarios need to be considered:

Option 1: Demand exceeds supply

In most cases, demand exceeds supply, which presents the risk that if the business cannot deliver to the pace of the market, then competitors will get ahead and your business brand may weaken.

Option 2: Demand less than or equal to supply (rare)

If demand for resources is less, you can easily start to formalise strategy, vision and the ideas can enter the Portfolio selection process that drives out project scope. Resources are not constrained. The challenge lies in delivery not the market demand.

Next Steps:

Agree the Portfolio selection process,(that will review the list of ideas for delivering the strategy targets and select different project scopes)

Strategy is segmented into domains, with clear targets

Create a Roadmap for each segment

Ensure that a brief to stakeholders, sponsor, project team explains the process, strategy and domain targets.

Create a high level Business plan that delivers, containing:

The investment and risk decisions that led to the revised demand.

The Strategy segments linked to the Vision, that deliver the revised demand and provide the margins that Finance require, through delivering projects to profit.

What will be delivered (products), when and by whom – sponsor, programme manager, business change manager.

Begin to create the segmented Strategy (aligned to the Vision) by incorporating everyone’s ideas through a well conducted brainstorm.

Segmenting the organisation’s activities into either Business change or service, makes the organisation easy to control, and simplifies change management. Resource Management becomes transparent with team sizes easy to view/alter and financial measure of Capex / Revex of non resource costs captured. The organisation can be managed as an entire entity, because change simply improves the service.

The business plan will articulate the Strategy underpinned by business cases, initiated in step 1.

OUTCOME:

Strategy will be structured into clear business segment targets, that will equate to the sum of the products and / or services.

An approved organisational business plan that will be aligned to the profit and loss account, consisting of:

year on year targets built from the benefits and costs for both service and projects.

benefits (tangible and intangible)

costs (fixed, variable, amortisation of capital costs)

net benefits line that reflects the delivery of the products and services as part of a roadmap, containing:

We will:

create a viable strategy to deliver the business need (demand), that the Board will approve to meet its mission and financial targets.

Technical: Bob got to grips with the complex data landscape extremely quickly and in general his technical understanding is such that he can engage with all technical resources across the organisation so as to ensure that they have a common goal while being empowered to do their jobs with complete autonomy. For this reason he has gained the respect of technical team members across the organisation
Programme Management: Bobs experience across large and complex programmes in a variety of …

Dr Foster

This is just to let you know how much I have valued your help over the last year in carrying out the Food Micromodel commercialisation exercise which has recently resulted in the successful awarding of a licence for its future exploitation. I am only too well aware of how much hard work this task has required and there is no doubt that without your dedication to it, we would not have been able to complete as quickly as we did. As you know, I have had to rely heavily on you to deal with much …

Bob was not daunted by the challenging relationships and history of the programme he joined and was able to support us in substantially moving our planning activity forwards to provide commercial and financial clarity in our position.

Embed Consortium : Team member

Bob was a great support when I moved into a new role. He has the ability to put any situation into context, based on his extensive previous experiences and sound theoretical knowledge base. He has an engaging style, is a good listener and I enjoyed our time working together

“During Bob’s 16 month assignment, he was invaluable in building a stronger relationship between our private US-based, software company and our UK government user. He helped us define and tune internal process that better matched the needs of government projects. His experience and affable nature were greatly appreciated on the project”.

Scott AndrewsSenior Director, Product DevelopmentBentley Systems

“I’ve worked with Bob over the last several months in Prague, as DHL worked to set up its European Program Management portfolio and supporting processes. He is dedicated, positive and pro-active about initiating change. Bob is action-oriented, identifies areas of improvement in current business processes and takes ownership.”

Vikram Ramnath, Director of Program ManagementDHL

“If the opportunity arose in the future to work with you, I would do so without hesitation”

Roger LovegroveCFO Software Company

I have found Bob to be a very capable manager who doesn’t lose sight of the big picture whilst keeping focus on day-to-day tasks. He has always got ideas on how to improve processes and procedures that will be beneficial for the business. He is great to work with and is always there to offer guidance.

Umer MianProject ManagerDHLLondon

“There were times when he had to make a number of crucial decisions that potentially had significant long term impact. I believe he brought a very calming effect to the SODA team overall and appeared to be a gentleman on whom one can always count. He believed in bringing synergy to the teams and contributed without caring for any individual credit”.

J DivedwiAccount DirectorPerot SystemsIndia

It was the best project that I have been involved in and what makes it great is not the technology but the people involved in it.

It was a true pleasure working with you: the team that is so grounded and the team that works together.

Today, I so fondly remember the day I got the email from resource manager that I am going to do this project. I am truly proud of being a part of this project (this is going to be a highlight of my CV); I have learnt a lot and made lifelong friends and mentors.